The last few months and our return home

This blog covers the last two months of our mission and our return home.  It is the final addition.  It includes pics from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Romania (3 hours from Cluj) and Budapest, Hungary

We've continued working with the leaders, members, missionaries and friends in Cluj-Napoca to help them better understand the doctrine and administration of the Church.  We've had great successes and some disappointments.  Here's a visual summary:

The venue for a high school concert; some of our church members are in the group of teenagers

The Church provides our notice for our return home about two months in advance; our first notification was received mid-June.  

President Ivory took the leaders of the Cluj-Napoca Branch and some of his friends out to a restaurant for a traditional Romanian meal the evening before a Zone Conference in our building.

Lunch for the Zone Conference provided by Sister Nelson and her "go fer", me.  The sister just above the "flower" arrangement is of Iranian descent; she was able to meet and fall in love with our Iranian converts.  Her father, who speaks Farsi, was able to Skype with them.  These two Iranian converts were hungry to talk to another Farsi speaking convert.  The sister above her right shoulder was one of our favorites; I fear that we'll end up having an "umbrella" themed wedding reception for her one day (don't ask).

Our "Cluj-bound" Book of Mormon copies for each of our kids.  The bookbinder for the Romanian Orthodox Church did this for us and does the same for most of the missionaries.

Our PHD candidate, investigator and friend

Another wonderful family of Romanian friends. 

Anything will grow in Romania; so many wonderful fruits and vegetables. The face of the sunflower will follow the sun across the sky each day. We love the parallel to each of us looking to the "Son" each and every day.

Two photos from Sister Nelson's Relief Society "swan song" in Cluj-Napoca

The Lee family; Brother Lee is an engineer for a Korean aircraft company working in Romania. The "International Branch" (English speaking members from all over the world) meet each Sunday in the Mission Office. 

How about these ice cream cones; we got them in Budapest, Hungary when we visited our Iranian friends

A castle in Budapest, (actually Pest in this case) built right into a rock cliff on the Danube.

The Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest

Another pic of our Iranian friends; their story is inspirational as is their faith. It was very emotional saying goodbye to them. We are thankful for Skype so we can stay in touch with them and follow their pursuit for citizenship in a free country.

A beautiful family palace, now a hotel, in Oradea, Romania

Below are examples of the beautiful architecture in Cluj-Napoca.

Our Cluj-Napoca Branch members

Some of our sister missionaries and young women who we have taught in Sunday School in Bucharest.

Our Italian friends; he works at the Italian Embassy in Bucharest; we hope to visit them when they return to Italy in a few years.  We'll go to the Rome Temple together.

Two Romanians we sooooo respect and adore.

We finally reach home; our day of travel was the day Delta's computers went down,  We were delayed over 3 hours in Amsterdam and missed our flight from Seattle to Wenatchee; fortunately my oldest daughter and son came over to Seattle and picked us up.

Part of our greeters at home

The baptism of one of my grandsons, Xander, a few days after our return.  We are so glad we've been able to serve our mission and hope to continue our lives even more dedicated to help our family, friends and others grow closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Goodbye for now, perhaps until our next mission (but it'll be a few years).

May-June Blog

We continue working in Cluj-Napoca.  There are some wonderful members in this beautiful city. There are many wonderful people in this city and throughout Romania; we will remember these people more than any other experience we have here other than the strengthening of our testimonies that we've gained through our experiences with them, the young missionaries, our Mission President of course and the General Authorities we've been privileged to meet.  As with the rest of the world where the gospel is new (we've been told "new" means less than 40 years - in other words through an upcoming generation) there are many doctrinal questions and errors that creep in, particularly in this age of the internet.  The status of the Church in Romania and Moldova is described as "the Kirkland phase".  In members' enthusiasm to learn the gospel they often search the internet for answers and doctrine without checking the qualifications of the author and end up with some weird understandings that are hard to break.  That is a major part of our task here along with supporting the branch leadership, the young missionaries, new converts, investigators and the members, of course. We try to help them understand true doctrine and give them references from our prophets, seers and revelators who remain/remained true to the faith.

Many of these problems/questions that arise remind me of two quotes; one from the Book of Mormon ("... and sought for things that they couldn't understand.  Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, ...", Jacob 4:14).  I can't find the other but it was either said or quoted in the past year (in a General Conference, I think); it goes something like this: Christ is the author of simplicity; Satan is the author of complexity.

We continue working with our Mexican PHD candidate (classical guitar) investigator and are working with a newly wedded couple (he's a big wig with some international grocery chains - picks out sites for new stores in Romania) and have just started working with a grandmother and her granddaughter (13 years old but acts and looks 17 like many European young ladies and speaks English so well; thanks Sponge Bob).  Working with investigators and young missionaries is still our favorite part of our mission; these people are so refreshing.

Our investigators who were just married with our sister missionaries

Here are some other recent pics:

A good luck charm for that house; a stork residing in their vicinity.

This is just one example of how the gypsies build their houses; they are often empty shells with very little furniture and few amenities.  We understand their size communicates status. They always remain unfinished so they do not have to pay taxes on them.

The view from our apartment in "Viva City".

Our Branch President and His family

Another example of happy graffiti; we're probably lucky we can't read some of the other stuff.

Sister Nelson, the young missionaries and I spent about 1/2 a day overhauling the Branch President's office.

This and the next pic: Sister Nelson's Cluj Relief Society event.

Two of our fabulous English students

Some beautiful Romanian countryside

We went hiking with the young missionaries in between those two rock formations

April - May 2016

I noticed that none of the pictures I tried to post actually made it onto my last blog; sorry about that. I will include some of them in this blog if I can get them to post.   In late March President Ivory asked Krisy and me to come into his office.  We thought he might want to talk about something with the office, the Panduri Branch or some other local issue.  Of course we were wrong; you just can't trust that man, especially when he has a certain wicked grin.  Well he asked us if we could get ready to move (we were and still are under contract for our apartment).  We said we thought we could; he gave us 10 days to prepare (which he later changed to 8).  Fortunately a new senior couple was coming in to replace a departing couple and they didn't want the departing couple's apartment so we worked some magic with our proprietor and two couples to fill our contract, said lots of goodbyes and headed to a beautiful town in Transylvania called Cluj-Napoca (Google it; some pics are included).  We are assigned to help the leaders, members and missionaries.

We are working with some amazing people (members and investigators).  We just had a baptism of a young (at least to me) Romanian who had lived in Italy for 14 years.  We communicated with her using our poor Romanian and what Italian we could remember from 40 years ago.  We are currently helping to teach a young man getting his PHD in classical guitar; he is from Mexico so I get to use my Spanish.

I now have a car at my disposal full-time; driving in Cluj is not nearly as stressful as driving in Bucharest (most drivers actually will let you in) but I think I still experience the same amount of stress because I drive so much more.

Here are some of the old pics I lost and some new pics:

This is what our walk to the mission office looks like in the snow.

A dance party in Panduri; guess where I wasn't.  As soon as that started I went to find something to clean.

A beautiful woman in front of the People's Palace (next only in size to Pentagon)

Mom's favorite graffiti artist (he's all over Bucuresti).

 Fancy hotel in downtown Bucuresti.

Just a plain ole' shack that used to belong to some princess and is know being used by WHO.

A painted wall on the outside of a bar (with Vlad's likeness).

This and the next three photos were pics of Krisy's last event in Panduri

Just the standard run of the mill venue for a high school concert; this building is beautiful inside and out.

Presents for kids and grandkids (mostly the girls - see below; the guy-stuff is too big and heavy).

One of our last walks in Bucuresti enjoying the neighbor hood

Our Iranian friends and converts who have given up so much and endured so many trials in the year they've been members.  We hope to go to the temple with them before we leave.

On our way to Cluj-Napoca

Our new apartment; the next view, too

Our new branch in Cluj

The "local" opera house

Angel, our investigator from Mexico; I get to practice my Spanish, a language I almost know.  He is working on his PHD in music (classical guitar).

A new member; Krisy and I spoke to her with our limited Romanian and Italian.

We (with the two local missionary companionships) celebrated a Romanian Easter Dinner with a branch member and his wife, a great couple.

Inside a salt mine; it was huge (see the flyer).  It even had a ferris wheel.

The beautiful town of Turda which is about an hour from Cluj.